I relented. I went online and bought some money agates to tumble. Given that I live so close to Gemstone Beach and have a pretty decent beach with pretty stones right out in front of my house, I never thought I’d “buy” any stones to tumble. There’s a Facebook Group called Amateur Rock Tumblers Worldwide and members are often posting gorgeous images of agates. Agates can be found here in New Zealand too but unfortunately I don’t live close to where they are found. A trip to Birdlings Flat is definitely on my to-do list!
So when the opportunity arose to purchase seven (7) money agates relatively cheaply I thought why not as an experiment and see how it goes.
“Money agate crystal, also known as the “stone of abundance”, is a type of chalcedony that is believed to have powerful properties when it comes to money, wealth, and prosperity. It is typically found in shades of green, yellow, and brown, with distinctive banding and patterns that resemble the growth rings of a tree.”
zmscrystals.org
Batch 33: 3lb Tumbler 4
Stage 1: 80/100grit
Number of Stones: 7 + 52
Weight in: 972g
4 Tbspns of 80/100grit – no pellets added
Days Tumbling: 11
Weight out: 875g – loss of 97grams
Stage 2: 220grit
Number of Stones: 7+52
Weight in: 875g
4 Tbspns of 220grit – 8 Tbspns of pellets added
Days Tumbling: 10
Weight out: 833g – loss of 42grams
Stage 3: 400grit
Number of Stones: 3+39+10
Weight in: 718g
4 Tbspns of 400grit – pellets added
Days Tumbling: 10
Weight out: 643g – loss of 75grams
Soap Tumble: 24 hours
Batch 33: Pre-tumble
Stage 2: Money Agates
As I’m keeping a close watch on the agates and their progression I did also notice that after Stage 2 (220grit) quite a few of the other stones look as though they will need an 80/100grit redo. Sure enough, I removed not only 4 of the agates but also 13 other stones from the batch did not progress to Stage 3 (400grit). Also added to Stage 3 were 10 Papatotara stones (originally from Batch 31 that didn’t quite fit into the combined Batch 32) to help make up the load.
After finishing Stage 3 (400grit) the stones are looking good. I did take out the poppy jasper to redo at 220grit. You can see quite a pit on the right hand tip. I am not sure that it will be possible to smooth that out completely. In it’s place I added a banded argillite that was ready for polishing. This stone was already super smooth and just needs the “shine”.
Unfortunately I didn’t have enough stones for a load in the 4lb tumbler so Batch 33 had to wait in the Polish Hold Box for a little while.
Transfer to 4lb Tumbler 2
It ended up taking quite a while for one of my 4lb tumblers to become free! Batch 33 is now combined with Batch 39 (also Gemstone Beach stones) for the polish tumble.
Note: The money agates have all ended up back together and were polished as part of Batch 38
Stage 4: Polish Mix
Number of Stones: 52 + 48 =100
Weight in: 1262 grams
Polish Mix (3rd use): 9 Tbspns of polish mixed with 600mls of clean water. (Added one new Tablespoon of Polish Mix after tipping off water before adding clean water) Pellets added.
Days Tumbling: 10
Weight out: 1252g – loss of 10grams (surprising)
No burnishing – just a good soapy rinse off and towel drying.
There was quite a lot of noticeable bruising in these two batches. I wish I was more sure that the bruising occurred during polish. I am wondering if I am not putting in enough pellets to cushion the load?
Polished Combined Batch 33 & 39
Polished Stones of Interest: Batch 33
Batch 33 | 3lb Tumbler 4 | Online Agates, Gemstone Beach, Papatotara | 3 October – 5 November 2023
4lb Tumbler 2 | Batch 33 & Batch 39 | Gemstone Beach | 28 December 2023 – 7 January 2024
Interesting agates! And nice example of gooseberry-green hydrogrossular.
Love that term “gooseberry-green” I need to get better at describing the rocks that I can’t identify!